Green Lantern Power Ring
History Origin The Green Lantern Power Ring, also known as a Power Ring, was a piece of jewelry which was actually an advanced device created by the Guardians of the Universe and granted the wearers incredible powers. They were created thousands of years ago after the failure of the Manhunters who were incapable of bringing order to the cosmos. For a time, the Halla's fulfilled their role but that organization was eventually dissolved and in the aftermath the Green Lantern Corps was created. Unlike their previous servants, they were gifted a new weapon which were the power rings and considered one of the most powerful weapons in the known universe. One of the precursors and early prototypes for these Oan devices was the Emerald Eye of Ekron. Their power was based on the aspect of Will within the Emotional Spectrum and its users energized the rings through Power Batteries that were linked to the Central Power Battery on Oa. Despite the power of the these remarkable Oan devices, their early incarnations were ineffective against objects or beings colored yellow due to the Central Power Battery suffering from the Yellow Impurity. The First Lanterns In order to begin their search for sentients with great willpower, the Guardians went across the universe to choose recipients for their new power rings. Three billion years ago, one of the Oans came to the planet Rojira where he was preent during a fight between the native Ruulans and Jirenn. This Guardian stopped a Ruulan from killing the peaceful Jirenn known as Rori Dag who was selected to be the first of the Green Lanterns. His success allowed others to follow in his example with many others taking on the mantle of Green Lantern and patrolling the spaceways. This led to the Guardians deploying their Green Lantern Corps across space and the division of the universe into 3600 sectors. A quarter of a million years ago, the Green Lantern of Space Sector 2813 known as Zharan Pel investigated a disturbance on a small world at the edge of his assigned patrol space. There, he found a world under siege from the Armagedon Creature and battled it. Despite the power of the green light, the creature managed to adapt to the attack and later killed Zharan Pel. Taking his power ring, the beast faced a projection of the Guardians to which it destroyed. Believing the Oans to be a threat and an enemy, the Armagedon Creature used its newly acquired power ring to trace them to Oa where it killed hundreds of Green Lanterns that stood in its path. Landing on Oa at a mountain near the Central Power Battery, the entity was confronted by one of the Oans themselves. Sensing it was near impossible to defeat the creature, the Guardian decided to sacrfice himself and exploded in power to defeat the beast. This act destroyed the captured power ring and seemingly the creature as well - though unknown to the Guardians, the explosion tore a hole in reality and deposited the entity elsewhere in the universe. It was known that two thousand years ago, one of the greatest of the Green Lanterns was Yalan Gur of Space Sector 2814. During his career in service to the Guardians, he was nearly killed by a yellow beast, This led to the Guardians of the Universe questioning their decision on why they would risk their greatest of warriors on such an arbitrary weakness. Thus, the Oans decided to remove the yellow impurity from Yalan Gur's power ring only making his the only one without any form of weakness. However, without any fear and without seemingly ultimate power, Yalan Gur became corrupted by his new found abilities and decided to remake the sector as he desired. On the planet Earth, he began to fear the native Humans and decided to bring terror to the lands of China. With the native peasants enraged, they rose up against him with wooden spears and similar such weapons. Whilst he laughed at their attacks, it was then that the Guardians chose to intervene in order to humble Gur. Tampering with his power ring, they changed its weakness to the color yellow to being ineffective against wooden objects. The Chinese wooden spears would harm Yalan Gur and in his anger at his masters betrayal, he did not use his ring to heal himself. Fatally wounded, he crashed as a greenish meteor onto Earth thus ending his tyranny. From his ashes came the Starheart and the power ring that would later be used by Alan Scott. Campaigns of Light The might of the power ring became legendary, even in the Anti-Matter Universe where the Weaponers of Qward had managed to capture a Green Lantern. Whilst they were in the process of attempting to remove the individuals ring, the device simply vanished. This later fueled the Qwardians in their desire to get their own version of the Oan power ring. In the late 19th to early 20th century, the Guardians dispatched Abin Sur of Ungara to a world that was being terrorised by the sorcerer known as Myrwhydden. Despite the mages power, he was defeated by Abin Sur who gagged the villain to prevent him from envoking magic through rhyme after which the Green Lantern shrunk the sorcerer to submicrosopic size and placed within the power ring where he was imprisoned on a barren world created by the Ungaran's will. Despite his captivity, Myrwhydden managed to transform his prison into a paradise and grew in power whilst he plotted his revenge. When Abin Sur later rescued a crashed space vessel on the tomb world of Ysmault, he uncovered the captive Five Inversions who used their powers to tell him the future. This included information that his power ring would fail him at a time of need leading to his death and they also told him of the Blackest Night Prophecy. Fearing the darkness that was to come, Sur decided to defy the Guardians and conduct his own investigation to stop it from happening. Taking Atrocitus of the Five Inversions hostage onboard his ship, he travelled to Earth in order to find the wielder of the Black. However, Sur's fear had infected his own constructs leading to the prophecy regarding his death coming to pass as Atrocitus easily managed to break free from his restraints leading to the ship to crash. Abin Sur thus died but not before passing on his power ring to the Human Hal Jordan who used it alongside Sinestro to defeat Atrocitus as well as return him to his prison. In time, the wizard Myrwhydden had grown powerful inside his power ring prison and used his magic to create an evil construct of Abin Sur to attack the owner of the ring; unaware that Sur had died and he was now fighting his successor. He was initially defeated and remained trapped within the ring though made numerous attempts to escape. Later, a new version of the power ring was created and Hal Jordan's type was upgraded to the new Oan model. At some point, after an attack by energy leeches that were feeding off Jordan's power ring, the wizard Myrwhydden managed to escape and fought the Green Lantern of Earth numerous times. One of the sorcerors schemes involved trapping Jordan inside his own power ring in a fantasy world created by his own mind but the mage was once again defeated. After fighting Myrwhydden, the Guardians decided to conduct a "psycho drama" orchestrated by Meadlux in order to better judge Hal Jordan's capabilities as well as his willpower which they believed might have been shattered fighting the evil sorcerer. In this simulated world, Jordan was led to believe that the Oans had created new advanced power rings that suffered from no weaknesses; even to yellow colored objects. As part of the exercise, it was simulated that this led to division amongst the Green Lanterns with some becoming angered with the Oans over hiding such a weapon. Kaylark, Eddore, and Galius Zed overthrew the Guardians in the psycho drama leading to Hal Jordan working to defeat them and remove the advanced power rings from them. With this accomplished, Jordan thus managed to pass his evaluation and the test was revealed to him. When Sinestro was found guilty of abusing his power ring, it was stripped from him and he was banished to the Anti-Matter Universe where he landed on Qward. Vowing revenge against the Oans, he teamed up with the Weaponers and assisted them in the creation of the Qwardian Power Ring thus allowing him to attack the Green Lantern Corps on numerous occasions. After the execution of the renegade Sinestro, the Central Power Battery began a self destructive chain reaction due to programming placed by the Oans that prevented harm from coming on a Korugarian due to a pact they had made in regards to the Zamarons. This led to the Central Power Battery reclaiming the energy it had given and it began to absorb power rings from members of the Green Lantern Corps. The Last Ring When Hal Jordan went insane as a result of the destruction of Coast City, he began to desire more power in order to rewrite reality itself. Thus, he turned against the Green Lanterns and the Guardians in order to claim more power rings. Killing numerous Green Lanterns, he ultimately destroyed the Central Power Battery as well as killed all but one of the Oans. This last Guardian who was known as Ganthet later gifted the last power ring onto the Human Kyle Rayner who took on the title of Green Lantern thus spawning his career as a superhero. Unlike the power rings of previous eras, this one was free from its weakness from the Yellow Impurity. After numerous tragedies during his superhero career, Rayner began to subconsciously tapping into his power ring. This led to him unknowingly manifestating his hate which created the cosmic being known as Oblivion. He also created the Circle of Fire which he believed were Green Lanterns from various points in the timeline but were actually aspects of Rayner's own mind. When he discovered this, he merged with the different members of the Circle of Fire and used his new power to merge Oblivion back into his mind. Corps Reborn Through the power of the Ion Entity, Kyle Rayner later managed to not only bring about the rebirth of the Green Lantern Corps but the Guardians of the Universe as well. His position as Torchbearer allowed him to bring about the restoration of the galactic enforcers with many new recruits taken into their ranks who were given pwoer rings. After the defeat of Parallax and the resurrection of Hal Jordan, the new power rings that were created were subject to the Parallax Anomaly. Thus, whilst they were capable of working on items coated yellow, they only did so if the user was free of any fear. Many of the Green Lanterns, however, were unable to truly master this feat until the Spider Guild invaded Oa. Whilst initially ineffective against the Spider Guild's yellow coated ships, the many Green Lanterns were taught to banish their fears and together they defeated the invaders. Hal Jordan after helping Batman defeat the second Tattooed Man, the Green Lantern briefly allowed the Caped Crusader to make use of his power ring and showed him how to use it. After the Sinestro Corps War and the beginning of the War of Light, the Guardians decided to take more extreme measures in combating their foes. Thus, they rewrote the Book of Oa and allowed ring wielders to now use lethal force against enemies of the Guardians. Oath All power rings need periodic recharging. The process is not instantaneous, so many Green Lanterns recite an oath while the ring charges. The oath is not required to charge the ring, but is recited to reaffirm the person's commitment to the Green Lantern Corps, and to measure the time it takes the ring to charge. While many Green Lanterns create their own oath, the majority use the Corps' official oath as a sign of respect. In the interests of political correctness on the part of DC (or, in context, Hal Jordan), the word "blackest" was replaced by "darkest"; this practice has been abandoned with the reinstating of the Green Lantern Corps, due in part to the significance of the Blackest Night comic event. Rot Lop Fan, a Green Lantern from a starless sector, replaces sound for light in his oath. Green Lantern Corps "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power... Green Lantern's light!" Powers ''Note: All powers described below apply only to the Green Lantern Corps Power Rings. The powers of Alan Scott's ring are similar and are described in his biography.'' Oan Energy Conduit: The rings use Oan energy, supplied by a Power Battery, which in most cases takes the form of green light. Rot Lop Fan, from a race without eyes, perceives it as the sound "F-Sharp" and his 'ring' is actually a bell. Green Lantern's ring, considered by some to be one of, if not the most powerful weapons in the known universe, has the ability to affect and use fundamental forces of the known universe, including electromagnetic energies such as gravity, radiation, heat, light, and powerful blasts of concussive force. It is also theorized that the ring also has a basis in other dimensional energies commonly called magic by users of such energies. The ring can also create fields of force formed from an unknown energy that was bound by the users' will. The limitations of such use are the skill, knowledge and imagination of the user. *'Energy Projection': The ring can be used to fire blasts of Oan energy or create weapons such as projectiles of them. The ring can project beams of force powered by the will of the user. Kyle generally uses fanciful constructs in the shape of advanced technology. Their appearance does not indicate the power of the weapon. The weapons power is more an indication of the will of the user. Certain users (i.e. Hal Jordan) have been powerful enough to stagger even Superman. If the user wishes, they can alter the form of the blasts, such as Kilowog's "booms." *'Force Field': The ring can create various forcefields of various sizes and shapes to protect the wearer and others around him. With the cosmic scope of a Green Lantern's duties, it is only natural that the power ring is designed for operation in space. The ring creates a force-field around the wearer, protecting him/her/it from the hazards of the void including filtration of stellar radiation and microscopic particulate matter which would ordinarily be fatal should the space debris strike the ring wielder at high speeds. An atmosphere appropriate to the ring wielder's biology is created inside the force-field, body temperature is maintained and waste products are removed. Gravitational stresses which could cause injury are stabilized for the ring wielder. Theoretically, a ring wielder could use the ring as his/her/its sole source of life support. The force-field seems to be created instantaneously, whether this is due to programming or an instinctive reaction from intensive training has not been established. It could be considered as a subroutine of the ring's automatic defensive system, but as of yet this theory has not been proven. The only exception to that was attacks based on the color yellow. The newer version of the ring, is not limited by the color yellow, but does not protect the wearer as efficiently as the earlier version did. *'Energy Constructs': The ring can form constructs of Oan energy. The primary function of the Power Ring is to provide a weapon capable of transforming the wearer's thoughts into physical constructs through the wearer's strength of willpower. A Green Lantern can create any particular items or construct that they can imagine as long as they have the willpower necessary to will it into existence. The constructs are made out of green energy, which is a tangible form of pure willpower, and they exist only as long as a Green Lantern is fueling it with their willpower. Items created by the rings are not indestructible and are only as powerful as the willpower of the Green Lantern creating them. The types of constructs usually reflects the ring wearer's personality. For example, Kyle Rayner is an artist, so his constructs reflect his strong imagination. John Stewart is an architect, so his constructs often appear mechanical, as if he designed them in his mind before making them a reality. Green Kryptonite has also been consturcted using a Ring. *'Phasing': The Power Ring allows the wearer to pass through certain solid objects, such as walls. Which objects that are not penetrable are not known, but it may depend upon the strength of the wearer's willpower and the density of the object's molecular structure. It has also been cited that the weilder could pass through the fourth dimesional gap or disembal their own molecular structure. *'Environmental Playback': Upon request, the power ring can recreate a holographic environment based on data in its memory banks. The ring wielder can observe events in a ghostlike state, but the ring wielder cannot alter the outcome of the playback. All objects in the playback will appear in the full spectrum of colors, regardless of the wielder's level of expertise creating simulacrum's. The power ring will automatically end the playback if outside interference warrants the ring wielder's undivided attention. *'Invisibility & Light Refraction': A ring wielder can render him/her/itself invisible by willing the ring to bend light waves around his/her/its form, as well as that of the power ring. Presumably, a similar action allows an experienced ring wielder to create objects of colors other than green. As Hal Jordan's experience grew, he was able to create power ring illusions of people and objects. It can be assumed the ring wielder would not risk the extra time and effort to create other colors in a combat situation. *'Energy Twin': The power ring allows the wearer to create an "energy twin" of his/her/itself that can travel at far greater speeds than that of the ring wielder's physical form. While the energy twin is active the ring wielder remains motionless, his/her/its life force is needed to guide the energy twin. The energy twin can not alter its surroundings, and may only be perceived by the Guardians or another ring wielder as a green, ghostlike image. Any knowledge gained by the energy twin is transferred back to the ring wielder's physical form upon recontact with the body. The Guardians frequently used energy twins as a means of contacting a Green Lantern. As a rule, a ring wielder can not create actual, independent duplicates of him/her/itself, as the power ring cannot create life. *'Energy Absorption': The ring can absorb and store most other energies. Doing so does NOT replenish the normal store of energy the ring has. A ring that needs recharging but contained a store of electricity could only discharge that electricity, for example. *'Flight': By the manipulation of anti-gravitons and directed molecular movement, the ring allows the user to fly at incredible speeds. In atmosphere, a Green Lantern has been known to fly as fast as Mach 10 in atmosphere by creating an aerodynamic envelope around his body. Towing others, usually within a bubble, his speed is limited to the twice the speed of sound or 1440 mph. In space, Green Lantern's speed can be significantly greater and has been known to approach 80% of lightspeed in normal space. Flight is possible at velocities exceeding light speed. In atmospheres, air friction is not a hindrance, since heat is either absorbed or reflected by the ring's field. *'Wormholes & Spacial Warps': The power ring grants its wearer access to wormholes in space, enabling the ring wielder to rapidly cut time and distance needed for transport. The Guardians established at least one known wormhole to Oa, which required the use of a power ring to enter. Black holes can be navigated by experienced ring wielders. During a battle with Sinestro and his ally, MadGod Sector 3600, members of the Green Lantern Corps of Earth and the Green Lantern Corps of the Klyminade traveled through a black hole to be deposited outside a white hole in Space Sector 872. The power ring cannot generate a Boom Tube, as it needs a Mother Box and a sample of the highly unstable X-Element. There is no known way to duplicate either item, even with the power ring. Should a Green Lantern make his/her/its way to the other-dimensional worlds of Apokolips or New Genesis through a Boom Tube, the ring will function as it does in the rest of the universe. John Stewart encountered no ring related difficulties during his stay on New Genesis, despite the loss of the Central Power Battery. The ring wielder would still need a Boom Tube to return to his/her/it's dimension. *'Time Travel': Time travel is possible with the power ring, though the further forward in time a ring wielder travels, the more willpower it takes. As Green Lantern, Hal Jordan once explored as far as the 70th century. Jordan had also traveled to the 58th century as Pol Manning, a role later adopted by Salakk of Slyggia. *'Limited Cellular Regeneration': This ring has a limited ability to heal physical injuries; this seems to be a feature held over from the previous incarnations of the ring. Green Lantern can use the ring to repair minor injuries in himself or others. Speculation has been rendered to wonder if Kyle actually had medical knowledge, that he would be able to cure a wider variety of dysfunctions, beyond normal physical injuries. *'Electromagnetic Scanning': The ring has a wide range of detection abilities based on the imagination of the user. If one can conceive of it, he can probably detect it. Magical effects like clairvoyance, seem to be beyond the scope of the ring. Most normal electromagnetic phenomena are within the range of the ring, including radio, television, infrared, ultraviolet, and high frequency band communications. *'Galactic Encyclopedia': The earlier rings worn by the Corps functioned as references for their users. Having the vast knowledge of the Oans to draw upon, each ring functioned as a ready reference on most peoples, stellar events and conditions that may have been seen by other rings or other Green Lanterns. The rings also served as a repository of adventures had by the Green Lantern and these mission reports were stored in the Prime Battery on Oa for review and training. *'Universal Translator': Keeping in mind the myriad of worlds, life forms, and cultures throughout the cosmos, it is understandable why the Guardians added a translation system to the power ring. The power ring can translate virtually any language in the universe, facilitating diplomatic encounters rather than violent confrontations. Complications arise when a frame of reference for translation is not available, as evidenced during Katma Tui's induction of Rot Lop Fan into the Green Lantern Corps. Katma Tui had the difficult assignment of explaining the concepts of "light" and "color" to the sightless Rot Lop Fan. She overcame this barrier by using sound rather than light as the basis of the ring's power. Some Green Lanterns, such as the planet form known as Mogo, have used the ring to create an intermediary "being" to expedite communication. However, this ability seems less effective since the restoration; it is possible that not all the data was recovered. *'Material Alteration': The Green Lantern's uniform is not made out of fabric. It is created by the Power Ring whenever the wearer wills to wear it. It automatically appears over the wearer's normal clothing, and vanishes when the wearer wills to return to their civilian attire. Most Green Lanterns wear similar uniforms that are programmed into the ring by default, such as Hal Jordan's uniform. However, each Green Lantern is able to adjust their uniform to fit their own needs, personalities and whims. For example, Kyle Rayner was unsatisfied with the traditional Green Lantern uniform and created several of his own designs. John Stewart's uniform is similar to Hal Jordan's, but lacks a mask to hide his identity. Jack Chance is the most extreme example, refusing to wear a uniform save for a Lantern badge on his trench coat. The green parts of the wearer's uniform are usually very warm or hot to those who touch it, while the black parts are very cold. The uniform also produces a "siren" taking on the form of the Green Lantern Corps' symbol, circling the Green Lantern when active. The symbol, or badge, will not appear on the uniform until after a newly inducted Lantern has completed training on Oa, leading to the term "White-circle" to describe a rookie Lantern. *'Ring Duplication': Most Power Rings are capable of automatically duplicating themselves. Each duplicate typically shares the qualities and capabilities of the original ring. While the thought of an unauthorized person getting a hold of a power ring and making duplicates for nefarious purposes, their ability to inflict damage is limited because each duplicate still requires to be recharged by a personal power battery. It has been revealed that all power rings, as being based upon the original green ring templates created by the Guardians of the Universe, are all programmed to be able to duplicate themselves on a specialised command known apparently only by the Guardians (The Zamarons and Controllers do not know of this command or what it is, as both groups left the Guardians before the Power Rings were created). *'Emergency Beacon': A Green Lantern in distress can use his/her/its power ring as an emergency beacon. The alert can be directed to a Green Lantern's neighboring sector, or it can be a Corps-wide alert. *'Homing Beacon': A homing beacon in the power ring can lead one Green Lantern to another. This was one of the recent power ring upgrade features added by the Guardians of the Universe. The power ring can be ordered to disguise itself to elude power ring wielding trackers. Guy Gardner successfully escaped the Green Lantern Corps of Earth by willing the power ring to keep his location a secret. Most often ring wielders will allow the beacon to signal their location to others. The Green Lantern Corps of Earth found the remnants of the Green Lantern Corps of The Klyminade by tracking them through their power rings. *'Mind Alteration': Though the ethics of mind tampering may be debatable, sometimes it is necessary. As the power ring relies on thought and will to operate, mind tampering is not impossible. The real difficulty lies in properly applying the power. There lies a risk of catastrophic damage to the mind should mistakes be made. A ring wielder can use the power ring to erase portions of an individual's memories. To protect his secret identity as Hal Jordan, Green Lantern created a mental block in the mind of Major Disaster. Green Lanterns have used mind techniques as part of training. New recruits may be subjected to mind scans by other Green Lanterns or the Guardians of the Universe. They are taught to build mental defenses to protect themselves from psionic attack. The power ring can also be used to beam information from the ring wielder to another being. Green Lanterns have used this technique to share information regarding their enemies during combat situations. *'Pocket Dimension': Within the ring exists the possibility of an entire world. When Green Lantern Abin Sur of Ungara defeated the evil sorcerer Myrwhydden, he reduced the magician to submicroscopic size and imprisoned him inside the power ring, into a world created by the Green Lantern's will. This undefined space may be a tesseract or a virtual reality created by the power ring. Whether or not this area exists in all rings has yet to be proven. Years after Abin Sur's death, Myrwhydden's power grew, allowing him to alter his environment and escape to battle the next Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. The power ring's interior appeared as a barren wasteland, dotted with dead trees and sea shells which Myrwhydden used during an escape attempt. A few years ago, Mywhydden was removed from the power ring to be sentenced to an Oan Sciencell. *'Security Protocol': The rings can be programmed. They are coded to the wearer to make them unusable if stolen. The ring will refuse to take an action that would kill a being unless they are on Oa or with permission. The Guardians recently removed the lethal force prohibition, first to allow lethal force against members of the Sinestro Corps, then against all enemies of the Green Lantern Corps. *'Preset Conditions': Commands can be stored in the ring to be executed at a later date, even if the bearer is not wearing the ring. This ability was demonstrated by Ch'p, who surrendered his ring but ordered it to restrain his enemy after a few moments had passed. *'Thought Relay': otherwise known as a telepathic link *'Levitation' Weakness Mental Instability Protocol: Drug use, neural interference, vertigo or other forms of mental incapacitation can render the wearer unable to use their ring. Yellow Impurity: Formerly, the rings were unable to directly affect yellow. Now, a wearer can bypass this if they can 'accept fear', which is personified by the color yellow. Rookie lanterns are more susceptible to fear and thus vulnerable to the color yellow Recharge Protocol: Formerly, the rings needed to be charged after a period of one planetary axial rotation (dependant on each ring's location), regardless of how often it was used. Currently, the rings retain a charge until they run out of power. This variability ensures that the wearer takes great effort to keep it charged. Vibrational Interference: If a vibration from a device is set to a certain speed, it causes the ring to function only in miniature, so that if the user wanted to make hands to grab something, the hands would be too small to grab it. A clock has been seen to do this. Current Owners *List of Current Green Lantern Corps Members Previous Owners *List of Former Green Lantern Corps Members *List of Current Fallen Lanterns Notes *Coming Soon Trivia *Coming Soon Links *http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Lantern_Ring *http://www.comicvine.com/green-power-ring/18-41361/ Category:Power Ring Category:Items Category:Weapons Category:Green Lantern Corps